Friday, April 11, 2014

I’m withholding names, because the intention is education, not mockery. At least, that’s my intention. I’m not perfect, and neither , as we will see, is Yogi Berra, master of time, space, dimension, and seven secret spices. Finally, all typos are from the originals.

1. “Nunuez: 270-game conspiracy pretending that he was a major league player”Nunez hit .267 over that time. Only a completely ignorant person would say that is pretending to be a major league player. That’s the problem with the internet, people who were not even good enough to play little ball well can pretend to be some sort of expert on the game. Yogi Berra had great praise for Nunez. So, who knows more about the game, Yogi Berra or some nerdy douche bag who probably doesn’t know how to hold a baseball? I’ll stick with Yogi’s opinion as that of an expert. Go play some video games, that’s the extent of your baseball knowledge.—Cy

Yogi Berra had great praise for Nunez.

“Appeal to authority” is a fallacious form of argument that says “Yogi Bear says that blueberry pies are the best pies. Yogi Bear knows a lot about pies. As such, blueberry pies are definitely the best pies, the pies you like be damned.” Sometimes, Yogi Bear’s opinion is not definitive, even in his field, or in truth he’s speaking outside of his area of expertise, in this case the undefinable area of personal taste. Like all of us, Yogi Bear has days when he’s just wrong.

Yogi Berra played, coached, or managed in roughly 3,240 professional games and obviously has a great deal of expertise about the game, or at least experience, which isn’t always the same thing. Either way, citing his opinion rather than actual evidence proves nothing. Further, when you are going on 89 years old and your job is to make the odd goodwill appearance at Yankee Stadium, no one is really asking you to render an honest critical judgment of any player, and it’s not remotely in one’s interest to do so given that if you show up and say, “Good Lord, Al Douglas is terrible,” then they stop asking you to come around and cut back your honorarium.

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Sometimes, Yogi Bear’s opinion is not definitive, even in his field, or in truth he’s speaking outside of his area of expertise, in this case the undefinable area of personal taste. Like all of us, Yogi Bear has days when he’s just wrong.

He might be wrong, but it's less likely when you factor in his above average ursine intelligence.

It's just odd that anyone got so worked up rushing to the defense of Eduardo Nunez. Career OPS+ under 90 for the guy who was supposed to take over for Derek Jeter, and a crime-against-humanity in the field.

He is now what he was always made to be - a utility infielder on the Twins.

It's just odd that anyone got so worked up rushing to the defense of Eduardo Nunez.

No odder than Goldman's apparent need to try to score points at Nunez's expense.

n other Yankees news, the club successfully traded Eduardo Nunez -- the subject of a 270-game conspiracy pretending that he was a major league player -- to the Twins for a 20-year-old left-handed pitcher named Miguel Sulbaran, who has lately been seen haunting the environs of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sulbaran hasn't impressed as a prospect, but given that Nunez is a career .267/.313/.379 hitter with a .940 fielding percentage at shortstop -- tied with Jeff Kunkel (1984-1992) for the most butterfingered infielding since the 1970s -- Sulbaran doesn't need to have much more than a good sense of humor to justify the trade.

Rule of baseball: A utility infielder needs to be able to field, particularly at shortstop. If he cannot do that, he'd better be enough of a hitter to play second base, third base or even left field. If he can do none of these things, as Nunez could do none of these things, you are truly stretching the definition of "utility" and should trade said player -- if not fir a Sulbaran, a dictionary -- and stop defrauding your customers.

Those players combined for 5 WAR mainly due to Blanco and Dominguez's defense.

All told, there were 84 players with at least 200 PA, an OPS<692 and less than .5 WAR. Only about a half-dozen of those are SS. Mayberry for example had a 677 OPS and -1.2 WAR, had 384 PA and was on the opening day roster for the Phils. Ronny Cedeno made it to 288 PA with -.4 WAR and a 617 OPS. David Murphy has a decent track record but still put up just a 656 last year and he signed for 2/$12 this offseason.

Clete Thomas has 794 career PA with a 656 OPS, 79 OPS+, playing mostly LF and RF. Over the last 5 seasons, Greg Dobbs has nearly 1400 PA, 664 OPS, 80 OPS+ and -4 WAR playing mostly 3B and 1B.

Screening out the C and at least most of the SS, there are 91 players from 11-13 with at least 500 PA and an OPS < 692. 26 of those players had negative WAR and another 23 had less than 1 WAR. Aubrey Huff, Travis Snider, Casey McGehee and Ben Francisco have all hit worse than Nunez while supplying negative WAR. One-time Primer fave Jeff Keppinger has put up a line of 284/316/376 in over 1250 PA with a dWAR of -2.

Just last year, Will Middlebrooks could only manage a 696 OPS with a 271 OBP and 0 WAR. Whatever happened to that guy?

As long as Don Kelly spends substantial time roaming the OF for the Tigers it is difficult to support the proposition that Eduardo Nunez is a pretend major-leaguer.